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Michigan man's invention may change apple picking

SPARTA — Phil Brown thinks he's found a way to improve on the way apples are picked.

The owner of Phil Brown Welding Corp. of Conklin has developed a self-propelled machine that replaces ladders with hydraulically operated picking platforms that crawl through an orchard while a vacuum system gently collects the apples and sends them directly into a bin, according to The Grand Rapids Press.

Not only is it safer for the pickers and the apples, but the five pickers who work on the machine can gather 20 percent more apples, says Brown, a 66-year-old inventor who has been creating fruit-related machines at his shop since he was 18 years old.

Brown, who has been developing the machine for the past six years, said it also has the ability to transform apple-picking into a round-the-clock activity. Hand-pickers generally work from dawn to dusk.

"We've had a lot of different versions," said Brown as he watched his latest edition crawl through an orchard west of Sparta that is owned by Riveridge Fruit Marketing Inc. Brown also has a similar machine operating in Washington, the nation's leading apple producer.

Riveridge CEO Don Armock invited reporters and fruit buyers from Meijer Inc. to the orchard on Thursday to watch a demonstration of the machine he has been field-testing this year.

"We wanted to help Phil Brown take this equipment from the testing phase into a fast-paced real-life harvest," Armock said. "With Michigan expecting 30 million bushels of apples this year, the trees are loaded with fruit to test these conveyance devices."

Brown's machine, which was developed to take advantage of the industry's trend toward thinner vertical trees, has three components to improve the apple harvesting process.

Platforms on each side of the machine can be raised, lowered and moved from side to side to reach the apples above ground picking height. The machine is moved in to pick the tops of the trees after a crew of hand pickers picks the apples at ground level.

Instead of placing apples in pails, the pickers lay them in pail-like collectors that are lined with foam and attached to large vacuum hoses. The apples then go through a "decelerator" before they are gently put into a bin on the back of the machine.

When the bin is filled, it is dropped from the machine and another bin is placed onto the machine from a conveyor wagon that straddles the filled bin.

While the machine does not replace the industry's need for migrant workers to pick the crops, Armock believes the machines will require fewer workers and attract better pickers because they will be able to gather more apples and bigger paychecks using the machines.

Brown said he will be ready to make his harvesting system commercially available in 2014. While the price of the machine has not yet been set, Brown estimated it will be around $150,000.

The self-propelled platform system also can be used during the off-season, when trees need to be trimmed, trellised and thinned, Brown said.